‘Always’ can definitely be affixed if you consider Attwenger’s been performing at our place with regularity for the last 25 years and we’re happy to remind everybody and you of that fact. So if you’ve caught them here before you know they’re a two-man band. If not, the duo is Markus Binder on drums, vocals and Maultrommel (or jaw harp, yep) and Hans-Peter Falkner contributes vocals and the unique Steirische accordion, which emphasizes the bass notes and is commonly heard in Austrian folk music. They’re folk rockers themselves but they splash around also in musical forms as varied as turbo polka, punk, country, rock’n’roll, hip hop and swing. It all sounds like a lot of fun and servus, it is.

But these two middle European musicians are singlemindedly serious about their art as well. 
Case in point were their intense collaborations with the British avant-gardist guitar Fred Frith and the Serbian Roma brass band lead by Boban Markovic. Markus and Hans-Peter are also immortalized on celluloid in Attwengerfilm (1994) and again in Attwenger Adventure from 2006. In 2013 they issued a live CD titled «Clubs» with starry guest highlights by again the likes of Fred Frith and which notably also featured the lungs of New York City’s own downtown shouter Shelly Hirsch. «Spot» from 2015 is their last album to date and it challenges you with 23 breakneck speedy tonal escapades expressed in a total time of all of 40 minutes. And you’ll also hear a minimalist mix of traditional sounds and Afro-American based influx that’s further enhanced by electronic sounds. The lyrics are performed in surreal and deceptive dadaist prose and tongue twisting Austrian dialect. So go figure for yourself is all we can tell you, you’re on your own. It’s the always and again astonishing Attwenger. From Linz, with love.